Leaders in Transition: Stepping Up, Not Off

Ask any leader about the career moment in which he or she was learning more than at any other time. Most are quick to recall: Urgent crises, massive opportunities, huge projects, and impossible deadlines are all among the common scenarios in which rapid learning and personal growth happen the fastest. Also common to all of these scenarios is an element of the unknown... the exploration of unknown leadership territory, doing something that one has never done before, and under intense pressure. Ask the same group of people about the dominant emotions during these periods of rapid learning, and they’ll tell you about the paradox: excitement for new challenges and fear of failure.

Leaders are advancing up the ladder faster than ever before, so DDI set out to take a unique look at the issues—not from the perspective of the organizations, but from the perspectives of the people who are actually encountering these significant leadership transitions.

What causes a leader to fail during transition? How do leaders themselves view their new roles? And what can your organization do to support the people who prime your pipeline? The findings in this report focus on the responses of leaders in the United States, with comparisons to their counterparts around the globe.